Byword on the Street
Byword Smith is a young comic and writer
located in Prince Georges County, MD. Truer than an innocent man
in a lie detector test, he loves vocabulary and communication
and is exhilarated by people who speak their mind. Whether or
not he agrees is important, but secondary. His personal interests
are loving his wife, and learning new things. Byword performs
his comedy throughout the DC Metropolitan area, and houses his
literary work at www.bywordsmith.com.
I Don't Get It
I recently performed at a show where the crowd was, shall we say,
hood? (In other words, black folks in the ghetto.) After the show
a guy came up to me and said that I was funny but the jokes were
over the audience's head. If they were different people, then the
whole place would have been rollin'. If I wasn't coming with the
n-word and all sorts of profanities, then they just wouldn't get
what I'm talking about.
That's a travesty. Do we as black people think so grossly low of
ourselves that even profane, scatological things are a step up,
and worthy of celebration? We take something squalid and cherish
it as noble! For goodness' sake, when someone calls us, "N****!",
we say, "Thank You!"and call them n**** back! And that's
just the greeting. The actual content of the conversation is N.C.
one hundred, seventeen.
Straight up, cats can keep the profane stuff for themselves. That's
not me, nor will it ever be. That's not why I do comedy. For me
to go that route, which I will not ever do, would be fake, worthy
of ridicule, and above all, not funny to anybody.
- Byword Smith
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Why Comedy?
